Seen it before and done much better

Rating: 1/10 (12 November 2002)

It's a very basic plot. Our hero awakes from some sort of sleep or coma to find that the entire human race has been wiped out. Surely, you're on to a winner straight away. H. G. Wells thought so, John Wyndham thought so, Matthew Graham thought so, Clive Exton thought so, Steven King thought so!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Need I go on? Now Alex Garland thinks so and he's right. He has written a very nice screenplay indeed. It could have been made into a great film. But it wasn't.
I hate being harsh and a critic in the worse sense of the word but this film is shocking (and not in the way they wanted it to be).

As illustrated above we have seen this idea many, many times but that in itself isn't a problem. What is a problem is that all the opportunities that the script gave for suspense were missed. I was left with the feeling that the direction was a triumph of style over substance. Worst than that, the style obliterated the substance.
The start of the film feels like very average TV fare, and by the end, it (and I honestly hate to be so harsh) descends into a first year student film. It isn't helped in this respect by the acting (which isn't helped by the casting). I must say at this point that I am not referring to the above the line cast who were by and large fine (Brendan Gleeson is first rate - the only part of the film that has any poignancy). I won't go into story details but the second half of the film involves a platoon of soldiers. It is here when we lose any semblance of reality. I know that we are of course dealing with a fantasy and practical reality isn't always necessary for that but for any drama to work you have to have emotional reality- you have to believe in these characters in this situation, however fantastical. You can be sure that when Mr. Garland was sat at his keyboard creating these soldiers, he could see how scary and threatening they could be if we believed in them. Unfortunately, due to some (sorry) terrible acting, miscasting, and weak actor direction, we can't. They become a joke, (Not the Scots Sergeant, he comes out of it OK), so we lose the whole point of the film.
All in all I would rather have been at home watching Holby City.